


You Seemed Nice...

by SariWrites



Category: Princess Tutu
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, Tumblr Prompt, implied college AU, might have a sequel one day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-10
Updated: 2015-12-10
Packaged: 2018-05-06 01:21:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5397581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SariWrites/pseuds/SariWrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabble/fanfic idea came from brotherjem.tumblr<br/>Thanks to lyriette.tumblr for proofreading! ;A;</p><p>“I work at Starbucks and you come in so often that I know your daily order and write encouraging notes on your cup”<br/>Ahiru is a barista and Fakir is the quiet guy who studies in the cafe regularly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Seemed Nice...

Starbucks was busy that day for Ahiru the barista. Carefully she filled each order, making sure everything was properly blended and stirred and mixed with the right amounts of syrups and creams and sugars. She worked so hard for that position and only spilled twice a day. She could feel her manager’s approving glance as she moved around the back storeroom with another coworker. Pique called out an order from the register as Lillie called for an order of three drinks from the drive-through window. Noting them in her mental list, she placed the whipped cream on top of two of the drinks to finish that order.

Their frequent customers had spent several months getting to know their careful barista. She may not have been as fast as Lillie or their manager, but when she was “in the zone” her drinks were often noted as tasting the best. Many of them were happy to wait, knowing they’d get a quality drink. And if any customers in that small town dared to get unruly and give her grief, the regulars would be happy to run them out again. No one was allowed to make Ahiru the Starbucks girl cry.

Ahiru glanced up at a clock as she poured the last of a frappe into a cup. Almost 4:15 in the afternoon. As she looked to the door it was almost as if he appeared on cue, his green ponytail bobbing into view through the windows. Every week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays he showed up to get a drink and sit in a corner to look over textbooks or work on his laptop. Ever since classes started back up a few weeks ago it was like clockwork. And on Mondays she’d catch sight of him going to a class down the hall from her. But it’s not like she was watching him or anything.

Of course not.

That’d be creepy.

As she turned to hand off the drinks with a smile, she saw him open the door, only to step back to allow a small family to pass through first. A small smile spread across her face when she found the smallest secret smile tug at his mouth.

As he got in line, six or so people back, Pique and Lillie both called out new orders. Quickly she got back to work after quietly setting a grande cup aside. One by one each patron made an order and went to wait in a seat or stand to watch her work. As the boy became third in line he idly checked his phone, only glancing up at the sound of the blender whirring. When he reached the front Ahiru leaned into view, cutting off Pique’s routine question. His mouth was still opening as she quietly plopped a drink next to the register, a pitcher in her other hand and a marker still between her fingers.

Pique looked at Ahiru as she went back to her orders, quickly washing the pitcher as another whirred dutifully. When she looked back, the guy was staring down at the drink. Picking it up, she read the name already written on it.

“Fakir?”

“... Yeah.”

Lillie could barely stifle her squeal by the window as a grin spread across Pique’s face.

“It’s on the house,” Pique couldn’t help but announce.

“So bold so BOLD!” Lillie wailed quietly as his eyebrow quirked upward.

Thanking her, Fakir took the drink and headed for the little station where he could get a straw and napkins. But he stopped mid-way as he noticed extra writing under his fingers.

He turned slowly to eye the barista as she began to carefully pour fresh hot coffee into a cup. A smile on her face, even in her eyes, he ignored Lillie as she bounced by the window, studying the braid trailing down her back. He looked back to her face and felt a blush rise without permission as he studied her freckles. Finally, he found his voice.

“Don’t hide your rainbows behind storms?”

Ahiru’s head jerked toward him, startled as a deer in the headlights. Fakir felt trapped by her stare and found himself looking at how insanely blue her eyes were. Too late he looked back down, unable to get any words out fast enough. Her mouth went from hanging slack to yawning wide as she yowled at the hot coffee spilling all over her left hand.

The next few moments were a blur to most in the store. The cup dropping and sending hot coffee everywhere. Lillie slipping as she ran towards Ahiru, unknown whether to help or to “comfort” her in her unusual way. Fakir climbing over the counter and failing as he tried to grab Ahiru’s other arm as she visibly tried to suppress the instinct to fling the pot still in her hand. A panicked Pique grabbing the flexible sink faucet and spraying everyone as if it were a fire. The manager bursting through the door at everyone’s screaming with the other employee behind her.

It was a mess.

As the floor was being mopped and the manager took over the register, Ahiru sat anxiously on a break room chair, fretting as Pique tried to wrap her salve slathered hand. Her good hand clutched at the seat as she murmured half formed sentences and thoughts over and over. Pique finally slapped a hand down over her knee, stopping it from jiggling up and down anymore as she tried to work.

“Will you just hold still already! I’ve had to rewrap this three times, I’m getting cream everywhere!”

Ahiru slightly curled into herself as she struggled not to physically fret anymore. But she couldn’t get his blushing face out of her mind! She chewed her lips as her mind ran rapid fire. She’d just stay in the break room. Forever. There was food in the storage room off here. Stuff in the freezer. Lillie could sneak her cake maybe while chortling over her pitifulness. She’d just never show her face to the outside world ever again.

A noise at the door made her jerk upwards, smacking her friend in the face in the process. Fakir eyed her from the door, looking from her to Pique trying to rub burn cream off her face without success, back to Ahiru. She had that deer in the headlights look again and he felt his face grow warm again as he realized he could still count the freckles on her flushed cheeks.

“You should be more careful,” he said gruffly as he moved closer to their small table. He watched her face change to a more stubborn expression.

“Well, you shouldn’t have distracted me!” she blurted back as he set a drink down. Pique silently looked on as he bristled, glaring over her head.

“Don’t blame me because you looked away from the hot drink you moron!”

“If you saw me pouring it why would you bother me?!”

Fakir scoffed at her. “Who even writes that dumb stuff on people’s drinks?”

He watched her face grow redder as she bit at her lip, “I DO! And it’s NOT dumb!”

“It is dumb! How’d you even know what drink I wanted?”

“Because you come here all the time and you seemed Nice!” Her hands balled at her sides, the burn almost forgotten.

How dare he mock her nice gesture?

Fakir stepped back at the sudden biting tone of her voice.

“You don’t know anything about me, moron! Don’t judge people you never spoke to.”

How dare he try to lecture her?

“But I’ve SEEN you!” Words tumbled out of Ahiru’s mouth as she glared across the table at him. “You held the door open for that family! You bought that kid a new slice of cake last week after his fell on the floor! You feed the ducks at our school! I thought you were nice!”

His mind raced as it processed what she said. She saw all that? She goes to school with him? His mind went back to a memory of a long red braid turning a corner.

“... How long have you been watching me?”

Suddenly Ahiru was silent. Her watery eyes began to look everywhere but him, and then everywhere from Pique’s smug grin. His eyes narrowed as he watched her, hoping she wouldn’t notice his face growing gradually redder as she stammered parts of completely different sentences.

“It’s not as- I wasn’t- Stalking isnt- I mean just- we go to- you- I-”

Without another word, Fakir walked out of the break room and left the store.

Ahiru dropped hard into her seat, head flopping back as so many emotions overwhelmed her. She couldn’t help herself from thrashing almost full-bodily, scrubbing at her heated face as her legs kicked at the underside of the table. Only Pique’s constant tugging on her apron pulled her attention off herself. Ahiru’s eyes looked from Pique, then followed her gaze to the drink still sitting on the table.

“Ahiru,” she read out loud as she pulled the cup toward her.

The smells of her favorite drink wafted to her nose as she eyed the whipped cream and cinnamon dusting. There was writing underneath her fingers on the side, and slowly she turned it to read.

“Don’t doubt yourself in the rain, the sun will always come back after.”


End file.
